The Rape of the Lock and Other Major Writings

by Alexander Pope

  41. argent fields: Sky filled with silvery stars.

  42. Jove’s: Jupiter’s. satellites: Pronounced with four syllables as ‘satéllities’.

  45. full or not coherent: i.e. there will be a gap unless the chain is complete.

  55. single: Single movement.

  60. a part we see: Echoing 1 Corinthians 13:12: ‘now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I also am known’.

  64. Egypt’s god: Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis; contrasted with the ‘ox’, sacrificial ‘victim’ of religious sacrifice.

  67–8. doing … deity: A characteristically compressed Popean summary: ‘doing’ refers to the ‘actions’ and ‘suff’ring’ to ‘passions’ (66); ‘checked’ and ‘impelled’ to the horse that Man either ‘restrains’ or ‘drives’ (61–2); ‘slave’ to the ox in its role as ‘victim’ and ‘deity’ to the ox as ‘god’ (64).

  73. a certain sphere: i.e. heaven after death.

  76. As who: As he who.

  79. From brutes … know: i.e. what men know is hidden from animals, and what disembodied spirits know is hidden from men.

  81. riot: ‘wild and loose festivity’ (Dictionary).

  87. equal: Impartial; also 111.

  88. a sparrow fall: ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father’ (Matthew 10:29).

  97. from home: Away from home, i.e. heaven.

  99. Indian: In the Americas.

  102. walk: ‘a length of space, or circuit through which one walks’ (Dictionary).

  110. seraph’s fire: The angelic seraphim were associated with fire; see also 278n.

  117. gust: ‘sense of tasting’ (Dictionary, citing this line).

  121. the balance and the rod: The scales of justice and the rod of punishment.

  126. angels would be gods: The angels who followed Satan in his rebellion.

  129. who but wishes: Whoever so much as wishes.

  133. genial: Generative.

  140. canopy: Placed above a throne.

  142. livid deaths: Plagues, whose victims turned bluish or ‘livid’ in colour, were supposedly provoked by the sun’s heat.

  145. the first Almighty Cause: God.

  147. some change: i.e. deterioration since the Fall of Man.

  156. Borgia: Cesare Borgia (d. 1507), Italian duke notorious for treachery and cunning. Catiline: Conspirator against the Roman republic; also II, 199; IV, 240.

  160. Ammon: See ‘Essay on Criticism’, 376n.

  163. those, in these: These moral things, those natural things.

  169. elemental strife: The classical concept of endless interaction among the four ‘elements’; see also II, 111n. and III, 219–22n.

  174. less than angel: ‘thou hast made him a little lower than the angels’ (Psalm 8:5).

  181. compensated: Stressed on the second syllable. of course: In the normal course of events.

  199. effluvia: Invisible particles, transmitting odours.

  202. music of the spheres: Harmony supposedly emitted by the planets, heard by angels but inaudible to humans.

  204. zephyr: Gentle breeze. rill: Brook.

  212. lynx’s beam: Beams of sight were thought to be emitted by the eye; the lynx supposedly had exceptionally acute vision.

  213. lioness between: The senses of sight and hearing were supposedly weak in lions, which therefore hunted by ear.

  214. sagacious: ‘quick of scent’ (Dictionary). tainted: Imbued with an animal’s smell.

  215. the flood: Rivers and seas.

  219. nice: Careful, skilful, precise.

  220. healing dew: Honey was thought to have medicinal properties.

  222. half-reas’ning elephant: ‘the largest of all quadrupeds, of whose sagacity, faithfulness, prudence, and even understanding, many surprising relations are given’ (Dictionary).

  223. that: i.e. instinct. barrier: Accented on the second syllable, rhyming with ‘near’.

  227. join: Pronounced to rhyme with ‘line’.

  234. quick: Alive.

  240. glass: Microscope or telescope. thee: Man.

  248. amazing: ‘wonderful; astonishing’ (Dictionary).

  261. repined: Resented, complained.

  262. engines: Instruments to carry out the intentions of the mind.

  278. burns: In Christian theology, the seraphim (‘burning ones’ in Hebrew) are the highest order of angels.

  280. equals all: Makes all equal.

  281. nor order imperfection name: i.e. do not say that order is imperfect.

  283. kind: Appropriate.

  285. sphere: Pronounced ‘sphare’.

  288. mortal hour: The hour of death.

  293. in erring reason’s spite: In spite of erring reason.

  Epistle II

  Argument: principle: ‘ground of action; motive’ (Dictionary).

  1. scan: Examine closely (and presumptuously).

  3–18. Placed on this isthmus … the world: Adapts, in a much less tragic mode, Blaise Pascal’s account of man in the Pensées as ‘judge of all things, imbecile worm of earth, depository of truth, sewer of uncertainty and error: the glory and refuse of the universe’.

  5. too much knowledge: Because the ancient Sceptic philosophers denied the possibility of valid knowledge.

  6. stoic’s pride: Because Stoics aspired to a godlike indifference to suffering.

  11. his reason such: Such is his reason.

  20–22. measure earth … regulate the sun: References to the much-publicized work of contemporary scientists.

  23. empyreal sphere: Plato held that archetypal ‘ideas’ or forms occupied the outermost sphere of the Ptolemaic universe, the ‘empyrean’.

  26. quitting sense: Escaping from the body in a mystical trance, as later Neoplatonists taught.

  27–8. eastern … sun: Pope had in mind a sage who whirled his head dizzily in order to imitate the movement of heavenly bodies.

  35. rules … bind: Newton showed that the orbits of comets, previously thought irregular, obeyed laws.

  43. science: Knowledge of all kinds.

  44. equipage: ‘accoutrements’ (Dictionary); the accent is on the final syllable.

  46. learning’s luxury, or idleness: i.e. learning misused as ostentatious display, or to while away the time.

  55. this … that: i.e. reason (‘this’) is not intrinsically good, nor is self-love intrinsically bad.

  59. acts: Impels.

  60. balance: The balance-wheel of a watch; the ‘spring’ (59) is the mainspring whose energy is given regularity by the wheel.

  63. peculiar: Particular.

  72. Reason’s at distance: Reason is stronger when its objects are distant.

  78. still: Always.

  81. schoolmen: ‘versed in the niceties and subtleties of academical disputation’ (Dictionary).

  84. wit: Intelligence in general.

  89–90. that … This: Self-love and reason.

  91. or wrong or rightly: Either wrong or rightly.

  94. real: Pronounced as two syllables.

  95. divide: Divide with other people, share.

  98. List: Enlist.

  99. Those that imparted: i.e. those passions, when reason’s care has been imparted to them.

  105. in act: Into action.

  108. card: The dial of a sailor’s compass.

  111. Passions, like elements: The four elements of classical theory, represented in the four fluids or ‘humours’ of the body; so long as they were equally balanced and ‘tempered’, no passion (see 117–18 and note) could gain disproportionate power; see also 139 and 159 and notes.

  112. his: God’s.

  117–18. Love … grief: The six principal ‘passions’ in traditional psychology.

  132. Aaron’s serpent: When Aaron threw down his rod before Pharaoh, it became a serpent (Exodus 7).

  139. vital humour: As in 111, but perhaps also with a suggestion of the ‘animal spirits’ that were thought to animate or v
italize the body.

  144. peccant: ‘corrupt; bad; offensive to the body; injurious to health; it is chiefly used in medical writers’ (Dictionary).

  149. sway: ‘power; rule; dominion’ (Dictionary).

  150. weak queen: i.e. reason, weak even though her rule or ‘sway’ is legitimate.

  159–60. small humours … driv’n them out: Gout, which produces excruciating pain in the feet and legs, supposedly attracted ‘morbid’ humours there from the rest of the body.

  166. sev’ral: Different.

  175. Eternal Art: i.e. Providence. educing: Bringing out, extracting.

  177. mercury: Psychic volatility, stabilized or ‘fixed’ by a ruling passion.

  181. ungrateful: Unresponsive.

  182. savage stocks: Vigorous but infertile trunks to which fruit trees are grafted.

  186. spleen: ‘melancholy; hypochondriacal humours’ (Dictionary).

  187–94. anger … shame: Pope invokes six of the Seven Deadly Sins – anger, avarice, sloth, lust, envy, and pride – but substitutes ‘shame’ for gluttony; he suggests that each can have positive effects.

  197. bias: In bowls (lawn bowling), ‘the weight lodged on one side of a bowl, which turns it from the straight line’ (Dictionary).

  198. Nero: Notoriously cruel Roman emperor. Titus: Benevolent emperor; see also IV, 146n.

  200. Decius … Curtius: Romans who sacrificed their lives in battle for their country.

  203. joined: Rhymes with ‘mind’.

  209. nice: Subtle.

  222–4. York … Zembla: The river Tweed lies north of the city of York; the Orkney islands (‘Orcades’, pronounced as three syllables) north of the Scottish mainland; and the island of Novaya Zemlya north of Russia.

  228. own: Admit.

  230. hard: Hardened (as, by analogy, people grow hardened to vice).

  231. vicious: Prone to vices in general, not necessarily malice.

  237. sev’ral: Respective, separate.

  241. happy: Fortunate.

  247. defects: Accented on the second syllable.

  257. its: Life’s.

  261. pelf: Riches.

  262. change: Exchange.

  269. chemist: Alchemist, seeking to turn base metals into gold.

  279. Scarfs: Badges of office. garters: Emblems of the high honour of the Order of the Garter.

  280. beads: Rosaries.

  288. bubble: In addition to the literal meaning, ‘anything which wants solidity and firmness; anything that is more specious than real’ (Dictionary).

  Epistle III

  1. Universal Cause: God as the ‘first cause’ of everything that exists.

  4. trim: ‘dress; ornaments’ (Dictionary).

  9. plastic: ‘having the power to give form’ (Dictionary).

  15. vegetables: Pronounced as four syllables: veg-e-ta-bles.

  29. wanton: Playful.

  33. pours his throat: Pours out his song.

  38. vindicate: Lay claim to (from vindicare).

  42. lord of all: Man.

  50. Be Man the wit: i.e. Man is the sole intelligent being.

  53. stooping: Plunging down on its prey.

  56. Philomela: The nightingale.

  61. vain: Full of vanity.

  63. learnèd hunger: Man has learned to cultivate domestic animals to satisfy his hunger.

  64. savage: i.e. wild animals.

  65. he dooms his feast: Whom he has doomed to be his meal.

  68. by touch ethereal slain: ‘Several of the ancients, and many Orientals at this day, esteemed those who were struck by lightning as sacred persons, and the particular favourites of Heaven’ (Pope’s note).

  74. makes him hope it: In anticipation of immortality.

  79. with reason, or with instinct: i.e. human or animal.

  83. unerring guide: Instinct in animals was thought to embody the direct influence of God (‘In this ’tis God directs (98)), and hence was superior to unreliable human reason.

  86. pressed: Impressed into service, as in the army or navy.

  90. wide or short: Wide of the mark or falling short.

  91. quick: ‘active; sprightly; ready’ (Dictionary).

  93. This: Instinct.

  98. this … that: Instinct and reason.

  102. Build on the wave … the sand: The halcyon is ‘a bird, of which it is said that she breeds in the sea, and that there is always a calm during her incubation’ (Dictionary); kingfishers nest in sandy riverbanks.

  104. De Moivre: Abraham de Moivre, brilliant French mathematician who lived in England in Pope’s time.

  105. stork: ‘a bird of passage famous for the regularity of its departure’ (Dictionary).

  115. ether: ‘an element more fine and subtle than air; the matter of the highest regions above’ (Dictionary).

  118. vital flame: ‘A fine, warm, igneous substance, supposed to reside in the hearts of animals, as necessary to life, or rather, as that which constitutes life itself’ (Pope’s note). genial: Generative.

  124. their race: i.e. their offspring.

  132. bands: Bonds (of family).

  134. At once: At one and the same time.

  135. With choice we fix: i.e. in the choice of a spouse.

  140. nat’ral … habitual: i.e. natural love for infants, and habitual for grown children (‘brood’, 139).

  142. helpless … began: The parents enfeebled by age.

  144. That … age: Memory looks back to youth, foresight anticipates age.

  146. preserved the kind: i.e. preserved the human race by sexual desire and marital love.

  148. The state of Nature: Before civilization began.

  154. No murder … fed: Animals were not killed for clothing or food.

  155. the resounding wood: The only temple was the forest, filled with natural sounds.

  162. butcher … tomb: i.e. of flesh that is killed and eaten.

  165. just disease: Disease that is deserved, as a result of intemperate living.

  177. nautilus … sail: ‘nautilus: a shell furnished with something analogous to oars and a sail’ (Dictionary); the chambered nautilus, buoyant enough to float on the ocean surface, was thought to spread a membrane in order to catch the wind.

  183. small people: Here, species of insect.

  184. ant’s … bees: Ants were believed to live in democratic equality, while bees served their queen in a ‘realm’ or monarchy (from French royaume).

  219–22. furrow … eagle: Pope invokes successively the classical elements: earth, fire, water, and air.

  225. explored: Detected.

  230. never sought but one: i.e. reason deduces that there must have been a single Creator, not multiple gods.

  232. saw that all was right: Cf. ‘And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good’ (Genesis 1:31).

  233. To virtue … trod: i.e. progressed through pleasure to virtue.

  234. owned: Acknowledged.

  236. right divine: The divine right of kings, repudiated in England after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James II; see also ‘Dunciad’, IV, 188n.

  240. but: i.e. could but be, could only be.

  242. enormous: ‘irregular; out of measure; not regulated by any stated measures’ (Dictionary).

  246. taught the tyrant awe: i.e. taught him how to inspire awe.

  249. She: Superstition.

  253. earth … skies: Earthquakes and storms, attributed to supernatural causes.

  256. made her devils: i.e. imagined them.

  257–8. Gods … lust: These passionate, changeable, and unjust gods are the Olympians of classical mythology.

  265. flamen: Roman priest. living food: Animal sacrifice.

  267. Heav’n’s own thunders: Interpreting the natural phenomenon of thunder in the ‘heavens’ as a supernatural omen.

  268. engine: Instrument of revenge against the priest’s ‘foe’.

  286. moral: Morality, ethical principles.

  290. nor to: Neither to.
strings: As in a musical instrument.

  292. strike the other: Touching or striking one string causes sympathetic vibrations in the others.

  294. a well-mixed state: A government, like Britain’s, that combines monarchy with electoral representation (preferable to the unmixed extremes of absolute rule and total democracy).

  296. consent: ‘concord; agreement’ (Dictionary).

  305. modes of faith: i.e. competing sects. graceless: ‘without grace; wicked; hopelessly corrupt; abandoned’ (Dictionary).

  311. gen’rous: Fertile.

  315. act: Cause (the soul) to act.

  Epistle IV

  10. flaming mine: Alluding to the belief that minerals were ripened by the heat of the sun (Phoebus).

  11. Parnassian laurels: Symbolic of poetic achievement, from Mount Parnassus, seat of the Muses.

  12. iron harvests: Victories in battle (in ‘the field’).

  14. culture: Cultivation, as in agriculture.

  15. sincere: ‘pure; unmingled’ (Dictionary).

  18. ST JOHN: See I, 1n.

  30. All states … conceive: All conditions of life can attain it, and all minds conceive it.

  37. what happiness we justly call: i.e. what we rightly call happiness.

  40. kind: Humankind.

  45. Abstract: Take away.

  59. In who: i.e. in those who.

  73–4. sons of earth … skies: Recalling the rebellion of the Titans, who piled up mountains in attempting to reach and overthrow Zeus.

  78. mere: ‘this or that only; such and nothing else’ (Dictionary).

  80. competence: ‘such a fortune as, without exuberance, is equal to the necessities of life’ (Dictionary).

  81. consists: Is consistent.

  92. One they must want: They must still lack one happiness.

  99. Falkland: Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland, killed in battle during the Civil War.

  100. Turenne: The Vicomte de Turenne, Marshal of France, one of the greatest generals of the seventeenth century, killed in battle in 1675.

  101. Sidney: Sir Philip Sidney, Elizabethan poet, killed (1586) like the others in a relatively insignificant battle.

  104–6. Digby … the sire: Robert Digby, a friend of Pope’s, who died in 1726 at the age of 40, and whose father (see ‘Epilogue to the Satires’, II, 241n.) was still living at 74 when the poem was published.

  107. bishop: Bishop Belsunce, who remained in Marseilles in 1720 throughout a plague epidemic, which was thought to be transmitted by infected air (‘each gale was death’ (108)); Marseilles is pronounced as three syllables.